"I want the federal government to begin protecting the sea otters from extinction," said Brent Plater, a lawyer for the Center for Biological Diversity in Oakland, Calif. "We are asking the government not to stand idly by and let this species go extinct."

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco by the center and the Turtle Island Restoration Network against Interior Secretary Gale Norton, Assistant Secretary Craig Manson and the Fish and Wildlife Service.